Russia loses to Sweden in overtime at world junior hockey championship finals

January 6, 2012

Russia went into last night's World Junior Hockey Championship finals with high hopes, but Sweden walked away with the victory after scoring the game's only goal just over 10 minutes into overtime. The Russian team certainly put up a good fight, and goalie Andrei Makarov managed to save the puck from crossing into his net 57 times throughout the game, according to USA Today. Unfortunately, 58 was his unlucky number when Swedish player Mika Zibanejad managed to sneak one past Makarov in the end.

"He came in on the breakaway and I knew he was going to score," Sweden's Jeremy Boyce Rotevall told the news source of Zibanejad's winning goal. "He told me this morning he was going to finish this game off."

Russia may not have been able to keep the puck out of their defensive zone, but they put up a good fight to keep the Swedish team from crushing them. The Vancouver Sun reports that Russia only had 17 shots on goal, and hockey fans can make calls to Russia with international calling cards to discuss the possibility that they sabotaged the game so Sweden could win their first world junior title in 31 years.